1969b

The following refers to a book by H. Aspden published in 1969.

PHYSICS WITHOUT EINSTEIN

Abstract: As stated on the book cover: 'The grand edifice of Einstein's theory appears to be crumbling and may well collapse as modern scientific technology exposes it to new tests. Without Einstein's doctrines theoretical physicists could be left in a parlous state. Professional physicists have been such firm believers in Einstein's philosophy that they have no alternative ready to meet the impending challenge. Perhaps this is why the amateur physicists, the professionals of other fields who are not obliged by convention to advocate relativistic principles, have been at the forefront in efforts to find a substitute for the unreal four-dimensional space of the Einstein universe. This book is the product of such endeavour.'

The main features of this book, as now seen from a perspective some 28 years on (this text being written in 1997) can be summarized by the following listing by reference to the pages of the book.

(1) There is a derivation of E=Mc2 by proving that an electric charge will, when subjected to an electric field, be accelerated in a manner which conserves energy, thereby denying that energy is radiated by the individual electron. This is the basis of inertia. The collective mutual reaction of many electric charges subjected to a common field action can, however, involve such energy transfer (pp. 8-14).

(2) The book suggests revival of a hypothesis prevailing in the 1920 era intermediate the discovery of protons and electrons and the advances in interpreting fine structure in atomic spectroscopy, by which the atomic nucleus contains protons and electrons. The deuteron is pictured as a composition involving electrons satisfying the J. J. Thomson mass-energy formulation. (pp. 18-21).

(3) An investigation into how energy is stored as the induction property of space. There has to be charge in motion in the vacuum and able to react to oppose the setting up of a magnetic field and, in so doing, deploy its own intrinsic energy whilst absorbing that supplied by the field. It is shown that the optimum reaction halves the primary field in storing the maximum energy density, namely that we associate with the magnetic field energy in a vacuum. The physical manifestation of this aether reaction property is the g-factor of 2 which applies to the electron in generating fields in ferromagnets by orbital motion in atoms. This is a superior explanation to that of the electron-spin hypothesis, because it is simply absurd to imagine that an electric charge having spherical symmetry can possibly exert an sizable external magnetic moment related to its 'spin'. (pp. 30-36).

(4) The generic law of electrodynamics from which the Lorentz force law arises as a special case is next derived. This generic law is essential to the step of unifying electrodynamic action and gravitational action. It applies to action between discrete charges in motion, rather than charge motion which involves a closed circuital flow of current, the latter being the prevailing condition for all empirical tests known to the pioneers who formulated the Lorentz force law. Note that a magnetic field has its source in what are effectively loop currents and Einstein's transformations involving four-space ideas merely make particles appear as infinitely-long filaments of current, which is why he went wrong in supporting the Lorentz version of the law. The generic law allows for energy exchanges with the aether, but it has a formal derivation and is supported empirically by data for interaction of currents which are in a common loop but which arise from electrons in one segment and heavy ions in another segment. The generic law is essential in advancing a valid theory of gravity. (pp. 39-47).

(5) The book contains a formal theory showing how the ferromagnetic property of iron, nickel and cobalt, is explained physically and quantitatively by a theory which is wholly based on electron orbital motion. Important here is the author's background research in studying the effects of mechanical stress upon the anomalous properties of steel. The mechanical stresses in steel set up by its magnetism exceed by far any that can be calculated from electron-spin theory. They are so high as nearly to promote the rupture of the steel but it is the fact that the mechanical stress energy density can be less than the negative potential energy density of the magnetic state that accounts for ferromagnetism. Iron, nickel and cobalt have a high modulus of elasticity and high tensile strength, as well as having the near-optimum separation and orbital radii of atomic electrons in orbital motion. These are the 3d electrons, one or two per atom sufficing to account for ferromagnetism, which have an orbital state equivalent to that of the n=2 quantum level of Bohr theory. (48-57).

6. Chapter 4 shows how wave mechanics stems from aether properties, essentially linked to the way in which electrons in motion about an atomic nucleus can get involved transiently in a kind of embrace with a spinning sub-unit of the aether itself. This involves a form that becomes what we interpret as a photon, but the object in this section of the book is merely to develop the Schrodinger equation from aether theory and show the physical interplay between the aether and the electron by deducing the photon momentum property evidenced by the Compton Effect. (pp. 58-77).

7. Before developing the formal detail of aether theory presented in this book, chapter 5 is where gravitation is introduced. It is shown that the tests supporting Einstein's General Theory of Relativity are easily explained by the aether model. However, the thrust of this chapter 5 is the introduction of the link between electrodynamics and the force of gravity. The key to this is recognizing the physical separation of the electromagnetic frame of reference (the matter frame) from the G-frame (the 'ghost' or gravity frame), these being disposed in juxtaposition about the inertial frame. All matter has a quantum jitter owing to the ongoing waltz, as elements of the E-frame and G-frame pair-up, in effect, so as to describe small orbits (the ultimate quantum feature) as they move in dynamic balance. So far as concerns the force of gravity, it is motion relative to the E-frame that sets up the electrodynamic force as a function of the mass of the 'ghost' elements involved in that dance. All such motion, as between those elements, is at all times mutually parallel owing to a prevailing universal synchrony. The law of electrodynamics has to afford a mutual force of attraction acting directly along the separation vectors drawn between interacting elements. The chapter ends by a simple analysis showing the formula for G, the constant of gravitation, expressed in terms of the unitary charge e, the radius of the 'ghost' element in which that charge is seated, the speed of light c, which relates electrostatic and electromagnetic units, and the charge density of the aether plenum needed to assure the overall electrical neutrality of space. (pp. 78-94).

8. The formal analysis of the structure of the aether by which its spin properties are formulated and its energy deployment and storage methods are interpreted. The key is its simple harmonic motion, which allows energy to be stored in a proportional ratio with angular momentum and then, by showing how the balancing angular momentum is quantized by the geometry of its spinning sub-units, we deduce a pulsation frequency related to energy. In short, the theory gives Planck's radiation law and Planck's constant h is determined in terms of the unitary charge e of the aether elements (same as the electron charge) and the speed c, which is the relative velocity of the E-frame and the G-frame, besides being the speed of light. These three quantities h, e and c combine as a dimensionless physical constant known as the fine structure constant. Its numerical value is known to very high precision. That value is deduced in a few pages of simple analysis in this book. Also the results provide the information needed to determine that 'ghost' mass radius x in terms of G, the constant of gravitation, and x combined with e and c tells us the corresponding mass of of that 'ghost'. The mystery particle, the denizen of the G-frame and the seat of the gravity force acting on associated matter, is called the 'graviton' in the book. The chapter ends by showing how it gets itself involved in meson reactions and these confirm its true existence, but only after the theory proper indicates how the aether model developed introduces the muon in a way which allows the mass of that graviton form to be derived in terms of electron mass from first principles. (pp. 95-124).

9. Next there was a chapter in which more was said about the structure of the nucleus, notably the form of the deuteron and concerning beta-decay and the neutron. In retrospect, though the themes just mentioned hold up and have become stronger over the years, the remainder of this chapter dealing with spin properties of protons and neutrons is speculative and its substance was discarded by the author in the light of other far-reaching developments. The latter are covered by the series of Hadronic Journal papers written nearly 20 years on from the date of this book 'Physics without Einstein'.

10. There followed a chapter on cosmic theory in which the subject of the perihelion motion of the planets was revisited and it was shown how the theory accounted for the geomagnetic field. However, the detailed account of the latter subject to be found in the author's earlier 1966 book: 'The Theory of Gravitation' was not repeated, though much of that section of text can now be seen in Lecture No. 4 of these Web pages.

11. Though the formal aether analysis can be found in the 1980 book 'Physics Unified', copies of which are still in print at the time this is written (May, 1997), there are essentially two themes in 'Physics without Einstein' which are not presented in any later work. These are the detailed version of the author's theory of ferromagnetism and the original version of the aether account of the planetary perihelion motion. The author hopes to include that theory of ferromagnetism in these Web pages in due course. As to that early version of the perihelion problem, that appeared to become history best forgotten once the author discovered the energy transfer method of deducing the perihelion formula as presented in 'Physics Unified' and [1980b]. However, reflecting on the oddity of having two explanations for the same phenomenon and being certain that both are right, a review is warranted. One finds that the early aether theory version involved the estimated radius of the planet's aether. This fitted well for Earth, taking the upper ionosphere as the boundary radius, and it fitted well for the planet Mercury, owing to estimates based on the effect of the eccentricity of Mercury's orbit. However, it is now seen that the two theories combine to determine the perihelion motion by the energy transfer method. That has very interesting implications because it allows us to determine the actual aether boundary radius that the motion through the aether forces upon the planet. It is believed that this may have something very interesting to reveal to us concerning comets and so more will appear in these Web pages on that subject in due course.

The full text of this book in PDF format may be accessed from the author's website www.aspden.org.